RUSSIA STANDS ACCUSED OF launching a cyber war against its Balitic neighbour Estonia. It seems that since Estonians removed a Soviet war memorial from central Tallinn three weeks ago, the Russians have taken umbrage with the country and unleashed a geek army which has sabotaged Estonian government web sites and those belong in to banks, political parties and other Estionian institutions.

Estonian authorities say the Distributed Denial of Service attacks originate from Russia. Russians have denied this pointing out that the computers in the attacks are located all over the world. A Zombie army is not ruled out, however.

Estonian government representatives have asked the EU and Nato for help in dealing with the pesky Ruskies.

Nato says it has sent its own geeks to Estonia in order to patch up its cyber defences. "This is an operational security issue, something we're taking very seriously," a Nato official told the The Guardian. "It goes to the heart of the alliance's modus operandi."

Estonian defence minister, Jaak Aaviksoo said Nato does not define cyber-attacks as military action. "This means that the provisions of Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty, or, in other words collective self-defence, will not automatically be extended to the attacked country."

The Nato official who talked to The Guardian said, "I won't point fingers. But these were not things done by a few individuals. This clearly bore the hallmarks of something concerted. The Estonians are not alone with this problem. It really is a serious issue for the alliance as a whole."